Plug-tobacco.



).PETEHSON.

PLUG TOBACCO.

APPLICATION'FILED-SilT-Q. i916.

Patented Feb.27,1917.`

554, Hid/ www@ mn. a. c.-

IINITED STATES FATINT GFFICE.

JONATHAN PETERSON, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO COMBINATION MACHINE COMPANY, ,Ai CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

PLUG-TOBACCO.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented maar, ier?.

Application led September 9, 1916. Serial No. 119,205.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, JONATHAN PETERSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of .New York, have invented certainv new and useful Improvements in Plug-Tobacco, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to manufactured tobacco products and has particular application to plug tobacco, such as may be used for chewing or smoking.

As is well known, plug tobacco is usually sold by the retail tobacco vdealer to the consumer in small, homogeneous solidified blocks or plugs which usually retail at live or ten cents each, for instance. such a homogeneous plug, it is the practice for the consumer to eithercut off, or in many instances to bite off a portion suiiicient to provide a chew or quid of the desired size or quantity. It often times happens that several persons will partake of the same plug of tobacco, which is obviously unsanitary for many reasons, and in some instances may present the danger of serious infection to one or more of the users, especially where the practice of biting the plug i-s followed, or where the knife oijother instrument employed in cutting off the small piece or sectionis unclean, or perhaps carries an infecting germ. Furthermore, the cutting off of a section or piece to be chewed, or the biting thereof frequently requires such effort as to cause the breaking down or shredding of the portionsof the Vplug contiguous to thepiece separated, with the result that when the plug is returned to the pocket of the person, shredded or disintegrated particles of tobacco are liable to fall from the plug into the pocket, especially should such plug be partially dried out, as through atmospheric influence.

To obviate the above others of a` like nature which are well known to consumers of plug tobacco,'I have devised the present invention in the art of manufacturing and preparing plug tobacco for the ultimate consumer.

InV the present instance I propose to preliminarily and partially divide the pressed plug of tobacco into small sections or portions of a size suitable for chewing for iny stance, by cutting or incising such plug In usingV disadvantages,'and Y of asimilar nature my invention consists v fromv opposite sides or faces, a cut or incision 1n one side of the plug substantially alining with but not meeting aV cut or incision 1n the lopposite sideof such plug so -that a web or unitary portion will extend throughout substantially the center or central plane of the plug, and the various sections formed by the incisions will be united by this web, so that each section or a multiple thereof, may be readily broken off to provide a chew or quid. Consequently the liability of a section or sections of the plug being accidentally disconnected or broken off 'is obviated, while when the user desires to consume a piece of tobacco it is only necessary with the exercise of but very little force 'or effort to bend orbreak such piece off from the remainder of the plug, the action of bending or breaking ofcourse severing that portion of the web which unites the particular section to the plug.

Another object of the invention is to so cut or incise the plug from opposite sides that in the act of breaking off a section the usual facing leaves or wrappers for the body of the plug will not betorn, split or broken from adjacent plug sections to such an extent as to permit the filler of the plug to disintegrate or shred away. Y

Furthermore, I propose to provide a plug of tobacco of this character which will possess manifest features of advantage from a 'sanitary standpoint, inasmuch as it is unnecessary-to employ an instrument such as in the construction, combination and arrangement off parts set forthA in and falling within the scope of the appended claims. In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of "a plug of tobacco embodying my invention, Vwith one of the sections thereof removed.

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view taken through the plug shown in Fig. 11 and illusti'ating the manner in which the incisions are formed so as to leave a uniting web in the central plane or portion of the plug.

Fig. 3 is a detaily view of the portion of the plugshowing more clearly the manner of separating a section therefrom.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings in detail, the letter A indicates as an entirety an ordinary pressed plug of to' bacco which may be of any shape or form and has the opposite sides 1 and 2 thereof provided with the usual wrapper or facing sheets 3 of leaf tobacco. In producing the form of plug shown herein, I subdivide such plug into small squares or sections 4 of suitable size for chewing by the spaced parallel cuts or incisions 5 and the spaced parallel cutsv orincisions 6, which cross the rows 0f cuts or incisions 5 at right angles, as clearly shown iii Fig. 1. The plug is cut or incised in this manner at both of the sides 1 v and 2, the cuts 5 at one side of the plug alining with the cuts 5 of the opposite side thereof, while similarly the cuts 6 at opposite sides of the plug are alsoin alinement.

However, these cuts or incisions 5 and 6 are relatively shallow, that is to say, are not made deep enough forfoppositely disposed alining cuts to meet at the center of the plug, and therefore av web or connecting strata 7 of the tobacco extends throughout the central portion or plane of the plug and unites the various .squares or sections. Thus, such squares or sections of tobacco will remain united by the web until suffi-f.

it will be seen that as the wrapperV leaves.

covering oppositefaces or sides of the plug are severed or sub-divided by the cuts or incisions 5 and 6, the act of detaching a section will not result in the tearing or breaking of the contiguous portions of the wrapper leaves, as is likely to result inseparating a piece from the ordinary plug of tobacco.

. Furthermore, it will benoted that with the present formof plugthe oppositely disposed cuts o r incisions are, as before-stated,

relatively shallow, which is an :advantage from the manufacturers standpoint in preparing the present plug for the market, iiiasiniich as the necessity of .making relatively is avoided, and this, of course, obviates the plug, or so deep as to result in the accidental f separation of the variousplug sections. lln

other words, in'making the cuts or incisions in one side of the plug only, it is diflicult toA accurately gage the depth of such cuts,

ethat is to say, to make the cuts deep enough without entirely cutting through the plug or completely separating the latter into sections. lVith my arrangement, however, as

the plug is cut from both sides, the incisions areso shallow as to render it an easy matter to accurately gage the depthy of cut desired.

It-will .further be noted that the intersecting cuts Vor incisions at the opposite sides ofthe plugv do not cause the removal of any f :substantial portion of the tobacco at the -pointswhere the cuts are made, which would beftlie casewere grooves. or the like formed yinfthe faces of the plug, but on the contrary QI these cuts are so narrow or thin and sharply deiined that the Vhomogeneous nature of the plug is not substantially changed, and therefore nodeepvgrooves `or indentations are formed, which would result in hastening the undesired drying out of the plug.

AWhile I have hereinshown and described a plug of tobacco of a particularshape having the cuts orincisions thereof arranged in a particular formation, I wish it to be understood that l do not limit myself to such details, asinodiications and variation maybe made in such respect without'departing from the spirit of the invention or exceedingthe scope of the appended claims.

That I claim is:

1. A plugfof-tobacco having spaced cuts in opposite sides thereof partially sub-divid- Aing said plug into aseries ofvsections, said cuts leavingy web sections atsubstantially theceiitral portion of the plug, so that each section, or multiple tliei'eof,may be readily broken off'to provide a Vchew or quid.

2. Aplug of tobacco having spaced cuts in oppositesidesthereof partially siib-dividing said plug into aseries of sections, the cuts at one sideof the plug substantially waliningwith .corresponding lcuts at the opposite side thereof, said alining cuts leavingweb sections at substantially the center of thepl-ug, vand which web sections unite ithefplug sections for ready separation, so

that eachl section, or a multiple thereof, may be readily broken off to provide a chew or 1 quid.

3. :A plug of tobacco having spaced interof the plug substantially. alining with the corresponding intersecting cuts in the op- :..pcsiteside I.of the plug whereby web sections deep ycuts in one side ori face of 'the plug lare formed vat substantially `the center of the-plug, and which web` sections unite the liability of 1 cutting entirely 4thr.ough.pthe

-plug sectionsl `for readyV separation, so .that

each section, or a multiple thereof, may be Vthe plug, 'each of said sections or a inulti le readily broken 0E to provide a chew or quid. thereof constituting a quid or chew and e- 4. As a new article of manufacture, a plug ing readily separable from one another. of tobacco composed of a plurality of unit 'In testimony whereof I affix my signature 5 sections partially disconnected from one anin the presence of tWo Witnesses.

other by lines of separation extending inward from opposite faces of the plug, said JONATHAN PETERSON sections being integrally united by a rela- Vitnesses: tively thin connecting Web of the tobacco J. GRANVILLE MEYERS,

10 located in substantially the central plane of RrcHARD B. CAVANAGH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner oi' Patents,

' Washington, D. C. 

